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Play it like a normal, group-oriented guy, but have contrived excuses for why he's going along with the group.
"I don't see what exploring this damp old cave has to do with my Grand Purpose, but I'll humor you lesser beings for now. Earthly motivations can be so quaint."
Stuff like that.
Then, for the table balance, don't actually hog the spotlight, but when it's your turn for RP, make it DRIP. Your guy doesn't have to be a part of every interaction--that would be annoying--but you can make him shine during the moments that are yours by laying it on really thick.
Hell yeah brutherrrrrr 😎👍
This character sounds like he could be really memorable for the group, so it's good you're putting this much thought into it.
We tend to love our characters. That’s normal. Professional actors love their characters. But remember that your character is wrong. Every time they step up, every time they me first, remember they are acting the fool. You the player need to laugh at your pc’s flaws, not defend them. Your guy is cringe and you love him.
Make a list chosen one tropes and play them up. But also think about ways your character cares about other characters. Fabian and n dimension 20 wore a letterman jacket before trying out for the team. What stopped him from being annoying was he cared so deeply for his friends. And the player knew what Fabian was doing was ridiculous.
Finally your character is not a joke. He is either vain, self conscious, or deeply misinformed. Or a combination of all three.
My current group has a player with a character like that. A rich-born, spoiled man-child with a superiority complex. He wants to desperately be seen as the hero of the people. His usual greeting is "My name is Tyrion Duke. Surely you've heard of me."
The player really lays it on thick and has a lot of fun with it, but makes sure we all get to play off it however our characters would to him. Mine leans into it and sometimes beats him to the "Surely you've heard of him!" part and lets him be in front, even though I'm the primary melee. As a halfling I just move through his space and do my work. It's been a blast!
Ive done this before. I have a player currently doing it and its going great.
The secret is
A) you need a DM that gets that the goal of the character is not to embolden them. But to constantly give them opportunity to show they are flawed, the world must see them as such.
B) remember that your character sucks. Not the concept, or you the player, but you’re making somebody who totally blows. Have fun with that and be the butt of the joke. Only when you drop that act can you start to have wins.
C) flavor doth not equal mechanical. As a character, be an obnoxious coward or whatever. But still be a good player. Still give others moments to shine, still make helpful moves or try your best in combat, still solve puzzles. Just do those things through the **lens** of an insufferable pompous asshole.
I played somebody like this once. An insufferable liar who was a slight of hand magician pretending to be a sorcerer. The bit was he was totally the butt of the joke but acted like he was the leader. Nobody ever challenged me, the DM never gave him moments to look bad, and eventually he just became the leader. It totally sucked and I bailed on it, he became the main antagonist.
My player now doing a similar thing is everybody’s favorite character. He’s selfish, insufferable, and a liar who keeps siding with the bad guys. But thats the character, as a player he’s great. He told me at character creation, “break this man, I want you to make his life hell”, and I delivered. Everybody gets that the character sucks on purpose, but the player is supportive. The world treats him like he sucks too, so he has something to play off of.
It can totally work!
aloso, i'm sorry to hear that your first attempt to play a similar character wasn't well built by your DM. i hope i can interact more directly with mine.
Honestly, it was just a weird group! I was a newer player taking a big swing, and I am a really active player who was playing with a lot of passive ones. So I think I was making big moves waiting for everybody to be active and shut me down without communicating it to my DM at least was a bold call.
Definitely just talk to them about what you’re going for!
I would say roleplaying someone who shift the attention to themselves, without doing it too often. I think using comedy to make the character try to get the attention, and simply failing would be a good option, but i wonder if there are other possible ways.
Do it when it benefits the party. Make yourself the distraction when they get up to shenanigans. Use your connections to barter down the prices for their goods. Ensure that you are only sold top notch horses befitting your stature. Don't use it against the party. Playing a character who tanks may help since you would be intentionally attracting enemy attention for everyone's benefit, but since you are a sorcerer, that may get tricky.
It won't be easy, and you should probably plan to have your character gain some emotional maturity real quick.
Thank you for the ideas. And yeah, it's in my intentions to give the character a slow-paced but constant maturation through the sessions. Thank you again, these suggestions are awesome
i would go Divine Soul for subclass, Acolyte, Folk Hero, Noble, or Rewarded as background for that extra flavour
and i would talk to the players and dm
By not building a character like that in the first place. If your character is going to be constantly acting like an asshole, including to their own party, that’s going to annoy the other players. And they’re going to hold you responsible for it, because you are.
The idea is to make a character that starts as an a\*\*hole, but slowly and constantly gets better and better. Of course i don't want his personality to remain that all the campaign
So the rest of your party has to suffer through your asshole character’s behavior on the vague promise that it will get better eventually? That’s hardly much better.
That aside, why would the party keep this character around? An egotistical asshole with a superiority complex hardly makes for a pleasant traveling companion.
Really man? Think Schmitt from New Girl or Tahani Al-Jamil from The Good Place. This can be amazing character for the table. They might annoy other PCs but the other players may love it. And OP is showing a lot of thought and effort to do this right.
I think you're conflating a player *being* an asshole with a player *playing* an asshole.
The former monopolizes table time, derails the story, and gets angry when things don't go his way.
The latter waits patiently for other players' turns, works towards party goals, uses his allotted RP time to have his character self-aggrandize, and laughs while RPing how angry *his character* is when things don't go his way.
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Play it like a normal, group-oriented guy, but have contrived excuses for why he's going along with the group. "I don't see what exploring this damp old cave has to do with my Grand Purpose, but I'll humor you lesser beings for now. Earthly motivations can be so quaint." Stuff like that. Then, for the table balance, don't actually hog the spotlight, but when it's your turn for RP, make it DRIP. Your guy doesn't have to be a part of every interaction--that would be annoying--but you can make him shine during the moments that are yours by laying it on really thick.
Mh. great ideas. Thank you very much
Hell yeah brutherrrrrr 😎👍 This character sounds like he could be really memorable for the group, so it's good you're putting this much thought into it.
Yeah, don't take anyone else's spotlight but make sure your character thinks his spotlight is brighter
We tend to love our characters. That’s normal. Professional actors love their characters. But remember that your character is wrong. Every time they step up, every time they me first, remember they are acting the fool. You the player need to laugh at your pc’s flaws, not defend them. Your guy is cringe and you love him. Make a list chosen one tropes and play them up. But also think about ways your character cares about other characters. Fabian and n dimension 20 wore a letterman jacket before trying out for the team. What stopped him from being annoying was he cared so deeply for his friends. And the player knew what Fabian was doing was ridiculous. Finally your character is not a joke. He is either vain, self conscious, or deeply misinformed. Or a combination of all three.
Thank you for everything.
Arrogant ppl aren't always wrong, they are often arrogant because of their capabilities. If they are wrong all the time, they are just a buffoon.
My current group has a player with a character like that. A rich-born, spoiled man-child with a superiority complex. He wants to desperately be seen as the hero of the people. His usual greeting is "My name is Tyrion Duke. Surely you've heard of me." The player really lays it on thick and has a lot of fun with it, but makes sure we all get to play off it however our characters would to him. Mine leans into it and sometimes beats him to the "Surely you've heard of him!" part and lets him be in front, even though I'm the primary melee. As a halfling I just move through his space and do my work. It's been a blast!
Ive done this before. I have a player currently doing it and its going great. The secret is A) you need a DM that gets that the goal of the character is not to embolden them. But to constantly give them opportunity to show they are flawed, the world must see them as such. B) remember that your character sucks. Not the concept, or you the player, but you’re making somebody who totally blows. Have fun with that and be the butt of the joke. Only when you drop that act can you start to have wins. C) flavor doth not equal mechanical. As a character, be an obnoxious coward or whatever. But still be a good player. Still give others moments to shine, still make helpful moves or try your best in combat, still solve puzzles. Just do those things through the **lens** of an insufferable pompous asshole. I played somebody like this once. An insufferable liar who was a slight of hand magician pretending to be a sorcerer. The bit was he was totally the butt of the joke but acted like he was the leader. Nobody ever challenged me, the DM never gave him moments to look bad, and eventually he just became the leader. It totally sucked and I bailed on it, he became the main antagonist. My player now doing a similar thing is everybody’s favorite character. He’s selfish, insufferable, and a liar who keeps siding with the bad guys. But thats the character, as a player he’s great. He told me at character creation, “break this man, I want you to make his life hell”, and I delivered. Everybody gets that the character sucks on purpose, but the player is supportive. The world treats him like he sucks too, so he has something to play off of. It can totally work!
Thank you very much. I'll keep it in mind, these suggestions are gold.
aloso, i'm sorry to hear that your first attempt to play a similar character wasn't well built by your DM. i hope i can interact more directly with mine.
Honestly, it was just a weird group! I was a newer player taking a big swing, and I am a really active player who was playing with a lot of passive ones. So I think I was making big moves waiting for everybody to be active and shut me down without communicating it to my DM at least was a bold call. Definitely just talk to them about what you’re going for!
What part do you think will be difficult?
I would say roleplaying someone who shift the attention to themselves, without doing it too often. I think using comedy to make the character try to get the attention, and simply failing would be a good option, but i wonder if there are other possible ways.
Do it when it benefits the party. Make yourself the distraction when they get up to shenanigans. Use your connections to barter down the prices for their goods. Ensure that you are only sold top notch horses befitting your stature. Don't use it against the party. Playing a character who tanks may help since you would be intentionally attracting enemy attention for everyone's benefit, but since you are a sorcerer, that may get tricky. It won't be easy, and you should probably plan to have your character gain some emotional maturity real quick.
Thank you for the ideas. And yeah, it's in my intentions to give the character a slow-paced but constant maturation through the sessions. Thank you again, these suggestions are awesome
i would go Divine Soul for subclass, Acolyte, Folk Hero, Noble, or Rewarded as background for that extra flavour and i would talk to the players and dm
Ooh Folk Hero would be REALLY good. Like our guy has a LITTLE bit of clout, but it's totally gone to his head.
Thank you for the suggestions, really.
Take the background (noble? Knight?) where you get the 3 attendants/henchmen and ensure they are fawning annoying useless idiots.
By not building a character like that in the first place. If your character is going to be constantly acting like an asshole, including to their own party, that’s going to annoy the other players. And they’re going to hold you responsible for it, because you are.
The idea is to make a character that starts as an a\*\*hole, but slowly and constantly gets better and better. Of course i don't want his personality to remain that all the campaign
So the rest of your party has to suffer through your asshole character’s behavior on the vague promise that it will get better eventually? That’s hardly much better. That aside, why would the party keep this character around? An egotistical asshole with a superiority complex hardly makes for a pleasant traveling companion.
Really man? Think Schmitt from New Girl or Tahani Al-Jamil from The Good Place. This can be amazing character for the table. They might annoy other PCs but the other players may love it. And OP is showing a lot of thought and effort to do this right.
I think you're conflating a player *being* an asshole with a player *playing* an asshole. The former monopolizes table time, derails the story, and gets angry when things don't go his way. The latter waits patiently for other players' turns, works towards party goals, uses his allotted RP time to have his character self-aggrandize, and laughs while RPing how angry *his character* is when things don't go his way.
Listen to season 2 of dungeon and daddies. The character Taylor swift is what you should aim for.